The Shore Blog

With social distancing measures ramping up over the past few weeks, it’s more important now, than ever, to stay connected. And thank goodness we can do just that with technological advances such as social media, email, video-chatting.

One way of staying connected through social media is by following the social media accounts of your favorite shore towns and businesses. Many businesses rely on follows and likes to help spread the word about their goods and services. Their social media rankings help them in many ways beyond allowing them to meet their customers and fans. And it allows you to stay connected to their latest news.

Through social media you can get to know the business owners, learn about upcoming events and special deals, and find out how they’re coping during the pandemic. Many are also offering unprecedented opportunities to order products online, pre-pay for services, obtain gift cards and other creative offerings.

So go ahead – reach out to your favorite businesses through social media. If you are unfamiliar with the various social media outlets, here is a short tutorial on each:

Instagram

This social media app allows users to post – and connect through – photos and videos. Many people use Instagram to post photos of anything from their kids and their special events, to the meals they prepare and the outfits they wear. Photos of vacation spots, pets and other interesting visual observations are popular, as are memes. Many companies use Instagram to show images of their products or upcoming events and sales.

Each shore town in Cape May County has their own Instagram account. This is a great way to get news, updates and learn more about what’s going on. Click on each town’s name to check out their Instagram accounts: Avalon, Cape May, Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Stone Harbor, Strathmere, Townsends Inlet, North Wildwood, Wildwood, Wildwood Crest). (Please note: there are multiple accounts for each town – some are official and some are fan pages.)

Here are some creative Instagram accounts to help you connect with what’s going on at the shore, and to have a little fun in the process.

Sightsof7Mile – This Instagram account allows you to view and post pictures of Avalon and Stone Harbor
CapeMayFoodTours – Take a tour of various Cape May eateries through this Insta account.
WhereInOceanCity – This account posts pictures of various Ocean City sights and challenges you to figure out where they are.
SeaIsleChamber – They post all the information you need to know about events and festivities in Sea Isle.
Vintage.Stone.Harbor – Here you can find vintage postcards and photos of Stone Harbor.

Facebook

Facebook has been around for a while, allowing people to reconnect with lost high school friends, distant family members and others. Facebook provides a forum for shore towns to post information about what is going on in town. It also provides people with an excellent way to connect with shore businesses, many of which do have Facebook accounts but do not maintain a website. For many businesses, Facebook is the only way to connect with them. Like Instagram, there are many Facebook accounts for each shore town – some are official and others are run by fans or residents.

These unofficial, community-based accounts allow people to stay connected with one another and share up-to-the-moment info, such as when storms hit or when a bridge is out or other information. One caveat: you often have to request to join these pages. That is to keep the page focused on the community and not on political rants or other troll-like behavior. They are often moderated and will kick off those users who do not keep their comments appropriate to the town and the general vibe of the account.

Here are the official Facebook accounts of Cape May County’s coastal towns, as well as community-centered accounts:

Avalon:
Official Facebook Page
All Things Avalon
Avalon And Stone Harbor Connections

Cape May:
Cool Cape May
Love Cape May

Ocean City:
OCNJ Vacation
OCNJ Chatter
OCNJ Daily

Sea Isle City:
Visit SICNJ.com
SIC Chatter
You Know You’re From Sea Isle When….

Stone Harbor:
Borough of Stone Harbor
Stone Harbor Memories

Strathmere:
Strathmere Website and Blog

Townsends Inlet:
Townsends Inlet Waterfront Park

North Wildwood:
City of North Wildwood
North Wildwood Recreation and Tourism
North Wildwood Beach

Wildwood:
Wildwood 365
Wildwood Boardwalk
The Woods

Wildwood Crest:
Wildwood Crest NJ
Wildwood Crest on the Beach

Twitter

Twitter is a social networking site where you can post brief updates. “Tweets”, as they are called, can consist of your own original information, or information that you share from another person’s Twitter account (which is called “retweeting”). Each shore town has several Twitter accounts, some official and some fan-based. Here are the ones we found for each town:

Avalon
Cape May
Ocean City
Sea Isle City
Stone Harbor
Strathmere
North Wildwood
Wildwood
Wildwood Crest

How you can help by connecting digitally

• Follow your favorite businesses on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter
• Like their posts and images
• Share their posts and images on your accounts or to other people’s accounts
• Follow links to their website to order products and services
• Repost their information